A warm afternoon. The people out walking on Third Street wear shirt sleeves, no coats. The warm weather fooled some of the grass into greening up a little. We’re not fooled. More cold air masses pushing down out of Canada and everything will freeze again. At least one more snow storm sweeping in from the west dropping heavy wet snow. Deep snow in places, where you have to wade through drifts to uncover the car. Mercifully the car starts this time but there’s this new spot of rust just below the door looking ugly and lots more hidden under fading paint of that I have no doubt. No doubt spring will be fully here some day soon. In the meantime the car warms up enough to begin another winter journey home. This is what we know will come. More cold. More snow. Spring, eventually. But at the moment it’s a warm afternoon in early March with no reason to think any farther ahead than now.
Monthly Archives: March 2005
Spring watch
Over the past two or three months, I’ve been hearing a Great Horned Owl calling when I’ve been in my office at night. Three weeks ago, I finally saw him, sitting up on the roof of the old Kane County court house building a block away from the church. No wonder he sounded so loud from my office.
I hadn’t heard him for a while, but I thought I heard him hooting last night, from somewhere further south in Geneva. He always gives four hoots at a time — hoo hoo-hoo hoo — which is how I know he’s male. I have not heard any females giving their call, of five to six hoots, at all this winter. It’s getting late for owls to try to find a mate, and I’m beginning to wonder if the male has given up on downtown Geneva and is moving further afield.
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Got a phone call from M., a UU friend whom I’ve known for some years now. M. is a few years older than I, and we both grew up as Unitarian Universalists. M. and I haven’t talked in some time, so we talked about mutual friends. We were youth advisors together for awhile, and we both were a part of Liberal Religious Youth, or LRY, the old Unitarian Universalist youth movement — so needless to say, the conversation turned to the state of the Unitarian Universalist youth movement, past and present.
M. had a great experience in the old LRY. She was active in her local youth group, in district youth activities, and at the continental level. I was in LRY only a few years later, in the mid-to-late 1970’s. While I had a great experience in my local youth group, by the time I came along, LRY had pretty much imploded in my district. I remember two girls from our youth group went off to a district event, and came back swearing they’d never go again — some kid had brought a handgun to that district event, and that was just a little too scary. So we stuck with our local group, and ignored the rest of LRY.
We weren’t the only ones to have that kind of experience, and in the early 1980’s, LRY was gracefully laid to rest, and a new organization, Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU), was born. And YRUU did pretty well for some twenty years.
But recently concerns about YRUU have been arising. In particular, Bill Sinkford, current president of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), and Megan Dowdell, youth trustee on the UUA Board, held a meeting in February about the future of YRUU at the continental level. In particular, they have concerns that YRUU at the denominational level isn’t serving local youth groups as well as it could. You can read about this issue in the February, 2005, issue of the UU World magazine.
I asked M. if she knew anything more than was in that article. She didn’t know any more than I did. But as we talked, we realized we both had had some concerns about Unitarian Universalism’s ministry with youth. Nothing serious, like handguns, mind you — but somehow we both admitted that we’re not entirely satisfied with what we have seen going on in local youth groups.
Funny thing is, I’ve been hearing similar things from some youth, too. And I’ve been hearing a little more dissatisfaction from parents/guardians of youth. I’m not hearingcries of outrage — it’s not like it was when I was in LRY and the whole organization was falling apart. Just a sense that somehow things could be better. So I’m very curious to learn what conclusions Megan Dowdell and Bill Sinkford come to. Are they going to try something as big as the process that made the change from LRY to YRUU? Inquiring minds want to know.
And I realize, too, that it really matters to me. I had a great experience in my local LRY youth group. As a minister, I have come to believe that in many ways our ministry with youth should be at the center of all congregations. No pressure, Bill Sinkford and Megan Dowdell — no pressure at all, it’s just that what you’re doing is incredibly important.
Belief, schmelief
Forget those beliefs, we do have a unifying theology.
I’ve decided I’m bored with the ongoing debate about whether Unitarian Universalists have a unifying theology or not. It bores me because all too often instead of getting into the really interesting areas of Unitarian Universalist theology, it winds up with someone declaring, “Well, I don’t believe there’s any unifying theology. I can believe whatever I want to believe in this church.”
Well — no. You can come up with counterexamples to disprove this last statement just as easily as I can. Obviously, we simply won’t tolerate outright sexist beliefs that proclaim men are superior to women. We have a low tolerance for charismatic authoritarian leaders who would control how we think and act. We would never require our young people to spend a year or two trying to convert people to Unitarian Universalism. If you want to believe these things, it will be easy to find you a church where you can believe ’em — but you can’t believe ’em in a UU church.
It is equally clear that we strongly affirm certain theological points. We strongly affirm insights of feminist theology, including that women are equal to men, that children are valuable, and that we are embodied beings. We affirm what William R. Jones has called the “functional ultimacy of humankind”; which is to say, whether or not we believe in God, we must act as if we have ultimate responsibility for our actions. We also remain strongly influenced by the insights of the social gospel movement of a hundred years ago, and we affirm that it is not enough for persons to try to save themselves, because in addition we all have a responsibility to save the world and make it a better place.
There you have three theologies which unify all us Unitarian Universalists: feminist theology, the functional ultimacy of humankind, and the theology of the social gospel. Bet we could come up with a few more, but that should be enough to get us started — and we do have to get started. All this boring bickering about beliefs is keeping us from acting out our theologies in the world.
Insider’s tip — and more on new religious movements
First, the insider’s tip for those of you who are part of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva — don’t miss this weekend’s worship service. I think you’ll enjoy what Lindsay and I have put together. Oh, and I’d recommend Saturday evening because — no, I won’t say any more because that will spoil the surprise.
As for new religious movements, I found a delightfully snarky article from “Lingua Franca” that reveals how scholarship in new religious movements can be quite profitable for the scholars involved. You’ll find it at this online site for new religious movements.
Scroll down and look for the article by Charlotte Allen. Turns out some anti-cultist scholars pocket big money for serving as expert witnesses, and some of those who champion religious tolerance and acceptance for new religious movements are getting funded by the Unification Church and Scientology.
There’s also an excellent article on the same page by John Chryssides which attempts to come up with a good definition of “new religious movement,” and which uses Unitarian Universalism as an example of a movement that has been accused of being a new religious movement, but which is not. Since “new religious movement” is the politically correct term for cults, that means we’re not a cult. How about that.
Spring watch
Red maples are often one of the earliest trees to put out blossoms in this climate and ecosystem. I’ve been watching a little red maple on Second Street, down a few blocks from the church. While its buds are quite red, they aren’t showing any signs of busrting forth.
On my afternoon walk today, I happened to look up at a tree on Fifth Street near State — it was a red maple I’d never noticed before, and up near the top of the tree it looked like a few blossoms had opened up.
That’s good news and bad news. Those blossoms mean spring is getting nearer. They also indicate the beginning of pollen season for hay fever sufferers.
Uncomfortable conversations
OK, I admit it, I’m feeling smug. See, as a Universalist I always feel a little smug when someone else finally figures out that the most powerful force in the universe is love.
I’ve just finished reading Gulley and Mulholland’s book from 2003 titled If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person. Gully and Mulholland are two evangelical pastors from Indiana who finally spoke out publicly in this book as proponents of universal salvation — as universalists. While they have been savagely attacked for their views, their book is selling well, has even made it into paperback.
Needless to say, their universalism differs substantially from mine. Their God is entirely male, their book is the Bible, their vocabulary is that of conservative North American Christianity. As for me, it’s impossible to assign gender to transcendence, my books include Hebrew and Christian scriptures as well as the Analects, the Bhagavad Gita, and the I Ching, and my vocabulary is definitely Unitarian Universalist.
Yet while I found much in their book I do not agree with, I am glad to have found the book. As a Unitarian Universalist, I really am committed to opening up dialogue across faith boundaries. As a Unitarian Universalist living in this part of Illinois, I often have to try to explain my faith to evangelical and fundamentalist Christians — and these tend to be uncomfortable conversations for someone like me who doesn’t quote the Bible chapter and verse. I’m always looking for a place to meet such folks halfway — a place where we can at least start a conversation. Gulley and Mulholland’s book might just provide such a place.